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On a bright, sunny day in Newcastle, Soapbox Science took place on 17th June for the third time in Newcastle’s Monument, supported by the Newcastle University Faculty of Medical Sciences Engagement Team, and by the organising team from the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences.

During the event, Grey Street was converted into an area for lively discussion of scientific subjects between researchers and the general public. Inspired by Hyde Park Corner‘s political debates, our scientists stood on soapboxes wearing lab coats and communicated their work to the passing crowds. There were no microphones, PowerPoint presentations, or posters, only materials from everyday life to support the scientific talks.

Two researchers from the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Professor Janet Quinn and postgraduate student Clare Willis, had been selected for a speaker’s role in the event, along with a number of other researchers in diverse scientific fields. Prof. Janet Quinn and her topic “Killer Fungus” grabbed the attention of many younger onlookers by creating Candida, Schizosaccharomyces and other representatives of the fungal Kingdom from colourful Play-Doh in Petri dishes. Clare Willis demonstrated the possibility for survival of a living organism for thousands of years as part of her topic: “Spores: the ultimate survivors”. An air balloon represented the bacterial cell as a target for antibiotics, easily destroyed by a pin, with an unbreakable bacterial spore shown as a much more resilient tennis ball.

A number of volunteers from the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences actively participated in the event. Here, we’ve compiled comments from a few of those who contributed to making the day a success.

Yana performing her duties as part of the evaluation team, gathering data from Soapbox visitors

“During my stay at Newcastle University, the secondment host for my Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, I had the fantastic opportunity to be involved in the Soapbox Science festival both as a public engagement volunteer and as part of the evaluation team. As an active researcher I understand the importance of communicating with the public to highlight exactly what scientists do behind the doors of the laboratory, and how they tackle issues that are having a major impact in our daily lives.

The challenges given to the speaker’s at this event were: as an outstanding scientist performing cutting edge research, would it be possible to explain the complex scientific topics to a non-expert audience?Would it be realistic to grab the attention of the general public out shopping on a busy central street who are normally put-off by the often challenging ideas presented by science? Could the scientists explain their research that could capture the imagination of primary school children?

Nevertheless, the presenters at Soapbox Science successfully achieved these goals. Instead of a purely academic presentation of their work, they shared their passion about science by demonstrating how exciting, interesting and important science is in solving immediate and longer term problems faced by society. The event also provided an opportunity for the public to interact directly with scientists in an informal and friendly setting.

The other fascinating aspect of the event was the aim to promote women in science. The female speakers, comprising different academic levels from student to professor, demonstrated their accomplishments in state-of-the-art research, and represented an example of a successful career path for budding scientists in academia. These brilliant girls are addressing the gender-related stereotypes in science.

Our Soapbox speakers were delighted with the public response

By participating in this event as a volunteer, it gave me the means to contribute to bringing science to society in an open and understandable way. I was able to question people who took part in the event and gather feedback that will help evaluate the impact and perception of the topics covered and how they think the subjects could help in shaping society, but also, more generally, to improve the event in the future.

Given my experience, I would like to encourage people to support the Soapbox Science by actively participating in the future.”

“I had a great afternoon speaking at the event. Speaking to the general public was such a novel and refreshing approach for me in comparison to speaking to my usual audience! Soapbox Science is such a great idea where instead of waiting for the public to come to us, we got out there and took our science to the streets. The audience was very engaging and genuinely interested in finding out about my research work on urinary catheters and what can be done to avoid the catheter related infections. It was brilliantly organised event and weather certainly helped to captivate the crowd. So well done to everyone who took part and in organising the event.”

Clare Willis, researcher in CBCB and Soapbox speaker:

“Soapbox Science was a fantastic event. As a speaker I really enjoyed the challenge of having to explain my research in simple easy-to-understand ways, making it accessible, interesting and exciting to a public audience. I got some great questions and I think my talk really got the public thinking. I feel I’ve made Newcastle a little more knowledgeable about my topic, bacterial spores!”

“We really enjoyed organising Soapbox Science this year and had a great time on the day. The enthusiasm from the speakers and volunteers to engage with the public was fantastic and it was wonderful to see so many people stopping to listen and ask questions.

We would like to say a big thank you to the speakers, volunteers and our fellow organisers for their contribution and making the day a huge success. We’re already looking forward to another successful Soapbox Science event for next year!”

You can also read a blog post from one of this year’s speakers, Luiza Andrade, on MicrobeBlog from the Society for Applied Microbiology here.

I volunteered to take part in Soapbox Science for two reasons; firstly I think public engagement with science is key to moving research forward and applying discoveries to the real world. The more people understand, the more likely they are to accept, and even welcome changes and developments in healthcare and environmentalism. Secondly, as a female PhD student I see the problems women currently face whilst maintaining academic careers and finding their way to being top class researchers. I think that the STEM fields need more female role models and trailblazers who can change the stereotype of scientists from “old male professor”, to “anyone”. Soapbox Science is a great way to show the public that women do exist in scientific communities, and that they are excelling in their fields.
The glorious weather on Saturday, 27th June, helped us engage a lot of people out enjoying the sunshine. Over the course of three hours, many came to investigate Soapbox Science (we even broke a record!) and listen to female scientists talk about the research being carried out all over the country.

What is a “fish detective”? Jessica Duffil Telsnig from Newcastle University explains.

From understanding the physics of everyday things, to the wondrous world of soil and its ecosystems or what is a fish detective visitors were encouraged to take part in demonstrations and ask questions of the experts on their soapboxes. Despite the many other events going on around us, the scientists held their own, standing out to huge numbers of people and encouraging everyone to get involved.

Cait MacPhee, from the University of Edinburgh, inspiring the next generation of female scientists.

One speaker was told by a visitor that “my daughter saw a female scientist for the first time at your event”. This experience will hopefully encourage this girl to pursue any career of her choice, and shows the importance of Soapbox Science events. We need to show the world that women are working hard in STEM and that these subjects can be pursued by anyone, regardless of gender.

It’s all about soil and sustainability!

I had a brilliant time volunteering with the Soapboxers. I was fortunate enough to be assisting Jasmine Black (a Dr once her corrections are complete!), learning about soil composition and the importance of sustainable farming in continual crop growth. As a molecular microbiologist, this work was new to me, but it was great to see Jasmine’s passion for her subject and how she shared that passion with the public.

Every speaker gave accessible, exciting talks and left people enthused and informed, completely fulfilling the aim of the day. Personally I got to see some incredible women at work, encouraging the next generation of female STEM researchers – very much outreach in action!

You might wonder why I specifically volunteered to join Soapbox Science in Newcastle. Firstly, it was one of the closest events to me and I really wanted to get involved with the project. Secondly, I did my undergraduate degree at Newcastle University, studying Medical Microbiology with Immunology. It is my favourite city, I think the people are the friendliest in the UK and I am always excited to travel back! The way many of them join in our Soapbox Science event shows that I was right, everyone was really friendly! I’m glad I took part and I’m sure I’ll take part in the future. Hope I’ve inspired you to join in as well!

In the second in our series on the recent Soapbox Science event in Newcastle, we have a guest post from Cathleen Thomas, who was a speaker at the event. She tells us about her work at the Northumberland Wildlife Trust and why Soapbox Science is both important AND enjoyable.

By Cathleen Thomas, Northumberland Wildlife Trust

A soapbox, a paddling pool and the passing crowd: recipe for science communication!

On Saturday, 27th June, I stood on a soapbox by Grey’s Monument in the centre of Newcastle to talk about my scientific work to the passing public, and as it turned out, there were a lot of people around that day. We got the best turn out for a Soapbox Science event yet and best of all these were people that were out doing their shopping and wouldn’t necessarily choose to engage with science. This was what drew me to speak at Soapbox Science – the chance to engage with a new audience – because as scientists we spend a lot of time discussing our science with other scientists, but it’s difficult to converse with the wider public. We publish results of our experiments in scientific journals that require an expensive subscription for access and often use very technical language. When science is made available in newspapers or online news sites, it is written by journalists and often has emotive, attention grabbing headlines that may not represent the real science underlying the story. So, here we were, in Newcastle, unedited and unabridged – just us and the public.

I was the only speaker at Soapbox Science who wasn’t from a university, so I wanted to spread the message that science isn’t just done by grey haired old men in lab coats with expensive lab equipment. It can be done by everyone. British people have a long history of collecting species and recording the wildlife they see, so natural history, or citizen science as it now seems to be called, has a long tradition. We need to get new generations to recognise its value and convince them to be part of it otherwise in the future no one will appreciate our wildlife or protect it and it will all be lost. However, it isn’t just a matter of continuing tradition. For the Northumberland Wildlife Trust but also for the person on the street, learning what wildlife lives around our homes is important for another reason.

It’s important to note that not all introduced species become invasive. For example, people were surprised to learn that the feral pigeon, which is a common sight around Newcastle, is not a native species. However, it doesn’t really cause any problems for other wildlife because it has learnt to exploit urban areas and thrives in the centre of the city where few other species dare to tread, at least in daylight.

By being vigilant, getting out and about in nature and protecting wildlife and our wild places we can conserve it for future generations.

Japanese Knotweed (Photo by KENPEI, licensed under CC BY via Wikimedia)

My street theatre debut at Soapbox Science started by showing people the figure £1,288,262,000 and asking them what they thought the government spent this on. After guesses including NHS spending or benefits, people were quite shocked when I revealed that this money was spent last year on eradicating invasive species. This doesn’t include money spent by other organisations such as Wildlife Trusts or individuals having to remove Japanese Knotweed from their garden before they can sell their house, so the UK-wide figure is probably much higher. Invasive species have a massive economic cost, as well as being one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss.

Me and a lovely little girl from the crowd got in the pool to demonstrate good welly washing practice and have a bit of a splash about!

To really demonstrate the impact of invasive species, I had some of demonstrations, ably assisted by my volunteer for the day, Ruth Nottingham. My pink paddling pool was filled with representations of invasive species and was a real draw for the children. It was quite warm on the day, so the kids were looking to cool off in my paddling pool. This gave me the opportunity to explain that when we work on different nature reserves we have to wash our wellies between visits so as not to transfer species from one place to another. This could be any small pond creatures as well as bacteria or fungi that could be carried in water droplets on our wellies.

Catching “invasive species” can be hard! One smart kid even tries blocking them at source, but that has problems too…

I was asked why we couldn’t just get rid of invasive species, but I had come prepared. I switched on my bubble machine and asked people to imagine that this was a flying, invasive insect, such as the harlequin ladybird. Then were then challenged to try to catch and ‘eradicate’ all of the ladybirds. With a bit of a tailwind blowing down Grey Street this was harder than they imagined and as some of the bubbles floated off into the ether.

One of the children then had the idea to cut them off at source and stood in front of the bubble machine and was applauded by other audience members who marvelled at his ingenuity. However, I explained that often we don’t know exactly where the invasive species are coming from, so I picked up the bubble machine and started to move it around so the bubbles were coming from lots of different directions. The sound of understanding was audible as people exclaimed and realised why invasive species often present a complex challenge.

My taxidermied specimens, showcased by my fantastic volunteer Ruth, meant that people could get up close and compare red and grey squirrels. That helped people to understand why our native reds are declining so rapidly.

I was then able to talk to people about squirrels, a subject which is always on our minds here at Northumberland Wildlife Trust as we have a team of around 20 people working to help our native red squirrel. I was able to answer questions about why grey squirrels are so invasive, what the pox thing is that they carry and whether they steal red squirrels food. However, I was able to share some good news in that we are finding that on some sites where we are controlling grey squirrels we are starting to find red squirrel numbers are on the increase. The battle isn’t won yet, not by a long way, but there are small signs of hope.

I hope I left people with a better understanding of wildlife and why it’s important to know what you lives around you and I left feeling hopeful that people understood our sometimes contentious work and was pleased to see that we had lots of support from the people of Newcastle.

On the 27 of June 2015, Soapbox Science, a team from Newcastle University and a fantastic group of speakers and volunteers helped transform the Monument area in Newcastle City Centre into a hub for science and discovery. As female scientists from across the region – and beyond it – took to the streets, got on a soapbox and showcased their science to the public, the aim was simple: bring science and the women doing it to the attention of the general public. Founded five years ago by Dr Seirian Sumner (University of Bristol) and Dr Nathalie Pettorelli (Zoological Society of London, ZSL), Soapbox Science has grown exponentially and this year there were seven events taking place in Bristol, London, Exeter, Swansea, Newcastle, Glasgow and Belfast, with over 90 female scientists participating.
For the Newcastle event, it all started when Prof Hilary Lappin-Scott, Vice Chancellor at Swansea University, visited in the summer of 2014 to speak at ICaMB‘s Equality in Academia day. Having just run Soapbox Science for the first time in Swansea, Hilary set us the challenge of doing the same this year in Newcastle. A few early indications of acquiescence and some tentative enquiries resulted in little immediate progress, but then Nancy discovered that it was her old friend, Seirian Summer that, together with Natalie Pettorrelli, was responsible for coordinating the whole operation nationally (and are branching out now globally). With Nancy, on board we began to motor ahead.

Our soapboxes getting final touches in ICaMB’s workshop

Potential speakers and volunteers responded enthusiastically to our call and it was tough to decide who should make up the final bill of inspirational women scientists speaking on diverse and engaging topics. Soapboxes were ‘commissioned’ (huge thanks to Newcastle Wood Recycling for their generosity and time and ICaMB’s workshop team for their inventive solutions!) and the go-ahead was given to set up at the Monument on our chosen Saturday afternoon. We were assured that the Morris dancers would be finished (they were, and only one of them then heckled us).

That bit of meteorite used by Christina McQuirk was heavy!

Even the potentially tedious jobs such as completing a risk assessment provided some amusement, courtesy of an email thread with the subject line ‘meteorite risk assessment’.

Newcastle Central MP, Chi Onwurah, joined the crowd to listen to our scientists

We drew up a press release and got some media interest, including interviews on BBC Radio Newcastle. Nancy even found a small team of filmmakers from the Tyneside Cinema to record the highlights and interview the speakers, volunteers and spectators, including local MP Chi Onwurah who came by to offer support.

We were grateful for great weather on the day. Three rounds of four speakers engaged the public with accessible descriptions of their science, hands-on participation and range of imaginative props, from baby dolls to boxes and even weirder objects:

Lis Lowe from ICaMB explaining to some “passers-by” how babies acquire gut bacteria

Rachel Williams, from Newcastle University used a range of striking props to explain inflammation

Kathy Romer from University of Sussex using stacks of boxes and fluff balls to talk about Dark energy

One of our volunteers, Kirsty Steed from Newcastle University, gathers the crowds with a passing comet

In our matching Soapbox Science T-shirts, we were (as was overheard) mistaken for a hen party! Not quite, sir!

Matching t-shirts – what could it be?

After a massively busy, fun and frantic three hours, speakers and volunteers assembled in the Tyneside Bar Café for come food and refreshments. We were delighted to learn that with more than 19,000 people passing through our Soapbox Science site, we had smashed all previous records. We are proud that we showcased great scientists and great science to so many. As one little girl told us “The problem now is choosing which science I want, there’s so much to choose from!”

We learnt a lot (there were mistakes!) and look forward to putting on an even better event next year. See you next summer, for Soapbox Science Newcastle 2016!